26.65 km / 1,008m elevation (Day hike)
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Mount Fitzwilliam Basin is an out and back day hiking or backcountry camping trail in Mount Robson Provincial Park. The trailhead is at Yellowhead lake where the boat launch is. The trail starts across Highway 16 and currently (in 2020) there is construction there for the pipeline. There are hiker signs and it is obvious where to cross the construction.
First, you encounter a sign-in sheet. You can backcountry camp in two campgrounds that are along the trail. You do not have to reserve or pay for the campgrounds, however, it is recommended that you write on the sign-in sheet so that the park can allocate funds accordingly. The start of the trail is forested and a gradual incline up the long switchbacks. Overall it’s pretty uneventful to the first campground. Then you cross a bridge and the trail becomes a big muddy bog fest. When I was there we had just had the first snowfall and some of the mud puddles were frozen. From here you start to finally get some mountain views but then this is when the rocks/boulder fields appear and with a fresh inch of snow everything becomes more difficult. Doing this with a heavy backpack would be interesting.
But don’t fear it is worth it so do yourself a favour and continue on trekking. We had to cross a creek that was near to a canyon. It was a bit difficult to find a suitable place to cross for Finn (my dog) so after getting very wet and cold feet I found the best location for him to cross and helped him get across. It, however, meant that I crossed the creek 3 times but that is just what you have to do when you are a dog mum.
The next rock section is the last of it. You will see a trail sign but the arrows have been scratched off but we headed left at the sign and found the campground... finally! We were surprisingly tired and cold once we got there. We were probably only at the basin for 30 mins because we were both so cold.
We tried to hike down as fast as possible and we even used hot pockets (hand and foot warmers) in our trail runners as they were obviously soaked from all the water and snow.
On the way out Finn was up ahead of us and I heard him bark which is very unlike him. I could see from his tracks in the mud that he was running which started to worry me. I was calling him and he finally runs back to me and he’s very happy with himself. Tail up high, tongue hanging out and butt wiggling like crazy. We start looking at the tracks in the mud and we spot some bear prints! We follow both sets of prints for a little bit and then they vanish. The cheeky bugger chased a freaking bear, I can’t believe it!
The rest of the hike was chill and we just tried to stay warm for the hike out.
For further details and information check out the BC Parks website.